Conor McGregor on uncertainty over opponents: 'They're all the same'

Most of the MMA world may have been losing sleep over whether or not featherweight world champion Jose Aldo would be able to fight through a rib injury and compete, as scheduled, at UFC 189 but challenger Conor McGregor reportedly wasn't one of them. The Dubliner's head coach John Kavanagh penned a fascinating inside look inside McGregor's camp during the tumult of the past few days and painted a picture of a calm, supremely confident fighter.

The coach described passing word on to McGregor from UFC president Dana White that Aldo may be replaced by Mendes, at the last minute. According to Kavanagh, the news barely warrented a grunt from the 145 pound sensation.

"It was UFC president Dana White who called me and asked how we felt about Chad Mendes stepping in to fight Conor for the belt," he wrote, for The 42.

"Conor was sleeping at the time so I walked into his room and told him it could be Mendes instead. He opened one eye, said 'They're all the same' and then went back to sleep. That's as far as any negotiation went."

Kavanagh went on to write that the expectation right now in Camp McGregor is that they will not know whether they will fight Aldo or Mendes, until the day before July 11th's UFC 189. Given the Notorious Irishman's attitude when the news first broke, that's probably just fine with them.

The coach also described the thinking that went into McGregor deciding to want to fight anyone, instead of waiting for Aldo to heal, should the champ not be able to compete in the Vegas main event, next month.

"If Aldo was going to be out, the options were to postpone the fight until later in the year or bring in a different opponent. Both were discussed, but Conor is driven by competition. The UFC mentioned a September date but I knew realistically that if Aldo's rib injury was bad, September wouldn't be realistic. At best it would be October," he explained.

"That would leave Conor on the sidelines for nine months. Some fighters are satisfied to sit out for a year when they've got a title shot ahead, but that's not something we wanted to do. Maybe people think we're crazy because if Conor lost to a replacement opponent then that guy would overtake him in the running for a title shot. We don't look at things that way. I believe Conor is ready for whoever the UFC put in there and we have to be able to back that up by accepting all challengers."

Read the rest of this insightful inside look, here.